The wheels of fortune turn as they do, alternating between periods of calm contentment and the seemingly unending gloom of frustrations. Everyone is assigned their share of both, sometimes in heavy intermittent doses and other times in smaller frequent portions. The sum total spanning a lifetime however, is always constant. Therefore, the struggles of one are seldom more or less than another.

Challenges will come and go, but the way they are dealt with determines the weight of the burden borne. Few would ponder on the insightful opportunities presented by a particularly difficult time in their lives, being preoccupied as they are in dealing with the same. More challenging the times, deeper the truths they reveal. All you need to do is pay attention.

Pay attention to those that walk uphill with you and those that seem to lessen their presence in your life. You can often expect a pleasant surprise from an unexpected source. Remember the surprises – the good ones – there will come a time to return them.

Pay attention to the elasticity of your existing virtues and the development of new ones. If you are patient, your patience will scale new heights. If not the difficult times will teach you patience. If you are determined your resolve will be tested. If you aren’t, you may go with the flow for a while until you are frustrated enough to activate your determination. The point is that the depth and breadth of your virtues are limited only by infinity but we are never able to attain those depths unless we are pushed to do so. Therefore, the challenges which come your way intimately acquaint you with the person within.

Lastly, without difficult times and despair, we cannot ever be truly happy. If we don’t know what unhappiness feels like we won’t have a scale to measure joy. You cannot know one without the other since they are two ends of the same spectrum. There would be no need for traits like determination, ambition, and persistence. These are identified as positive traits but are born out of situations and circumstances which are not ideal.

So in a nutshell, when life hands you challenges…discover the new you!